Defenders of Wildlife
non-profit organization in the USA
Defenders of Wildlife is a 501(c)(3) non-profit conservation organization based in the United States. It works to protect all native animals and plants throughout North America in their natural communities.
Background
Defenders of Wildlife is a national conservation organization that works to conserve wildlife, protect wildlife habitat and safeguard biodiversity. Founded in 1947, Defenders of Wildlife was originally called Defenders of Fur Bearers, and worked to preserve wild animals. Although its work has broadened to include wildlife habitat and biodiversity, protecting wild animals—especially large carnivores—remains a central goal.
The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with field offices in Anchorage, Sacramento, Denver, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Asheville, North Carolina and Seattle.
Areas of work
Protecting Imperiled Species – Defenders works to prevent species from going extinct in the face of rising threats. They do this by working to influence local, state and federal policy and laws, especially the Endangered Species Act. Specifically, the organization has identified "key species" that play a broader role in their ecosystems and serve as ambassador wildlife species. Those include: wolves, bees, bats, sea turtles, Sonoran pronghorn, sharks, mussels, black-footed ferrets, desert tortoises, grizzly bears, parrots, wolverines, gopher tortoises, amphibians, whales, migratory shorebirds, jaguar, bison, freshwater fish, sea otters, Florida panthers, manatees, polar bears, California condors, and sage-grouse.
The public source identifies “Defenders of Wildlife” as non-profit organization in the USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Defenders, Wildlife and non-profit.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3021200. VIAF identifies the subject as 135358844. The Library of Congress control number is n50051607. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Defenders of Wildlife” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.